Battle of Marne

Battle of Marne

"Do you know that during World War I...there was a very huge impact battle called the Battle of Marne." There are several reasons that why I chose this topic, first is because it's an very important battle in World War I, and it's very relevant to World War I in terms of applying tactics and many more special ways of battling. I found this topic interesting because of the German's clever plan that they had applied for this war, since the first stance, they used the Schlieffen Plan. However, this battle occured twice, first in 1914, later in 1918.

The first "Battle of Marne" lasted from September 6th- 12th, 1914. Mainly, the most efficient and the impact country in the first "Battle of Marne" is for sure Germany. The biggest rival of Germany is the Great Britain. The Germans are now likely to invade north-eastern France and Belgium, they chose to invade north-eastern part of France because that part of France is not fully protected, so it's not secure. The Germans successfully defeated the Belgians, then after they advanced to the deep of north-eastern, France and Britain got advanced by the Germans by pursuiting the Belgians and French with the use of their clever Schlieffen Plan. During the 8th to the 12th the Germans got invaded mostly during the time. Due to the fact that the Germans attacked Belgium, this also brought Britain into the war because Britain promised Belgium that if German invades them Britain will help them. The Battle of Marne also included using tactic called "trench warfare", which is a very great strategy.

"Battles: The First Battle of the Marne, 1914." First World War. Saturday, 11 August, 2001. 16 Sep 2008 http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/marne1.htm.



The second "Battle of Marne" took place from July 15th- August 5th, 1918. The Germans thought that the was was lost. The reason for this is because a lot of German commander thought that the war was lost. During the second Battle of Marne (at this moment United States is already in the war) Germany's attacks are less harmful because they failed a lot during their offensive stance. With Germany's huge fail in breaking through, the Allied supreme commander Ferdinand Foch demanded a counter-attack on July 18th, this includes 24 seperated French army alone, and additionally the United States, Britain, and Italy send troops as well (overall composing of 350 tanks.) So this made the Germans had to retreat on July 20th, and on August 3rd the Germans were back at the same place where they started their offence. Overall, the Germans loses a lot of advantage during this second battle of Marne.






"Battles: The Second Battle of the Marne, 1918." First World War. Saturday, 17 April, 2004. 16 Sep 2008 http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/marne2.htm.

However, the overall Battle of Marne made a huge impact on World War one, because this war is actually the war that lead many countries to get involved. In my outlook World War I first started with only two countries in combat, which is between Germany and Belgium. It was that the Germans wanted power, I think this could be one of the reasons for them to invade Belgium because they may demand some part of Belgium's territories. The fact is that Germany is a very powerful nation, but had really less colonies compared to other European countries, they got no choice because they came later than others. So this may lead the Germans to proof that they're just as tough as others and is for sure not weaker than any country, daring to face any tough country any where and any place. It was estimated that the Germans suffered 168,000 casualties (estimated), and this marked the last real attempt for the Central Powers to win World War I.

In my conclusion, I would like to say that in all the Battle of Marne totally affected a whole lot to World War I. But if I was at that time, I would sided the Germans, because the Germans are the most hated country; this is because of they had a lot of rivals as well.

Picture sources:

"World War I: Marne River." Online Photograph. Britannica Student Encyclopædia.
24 2008 <http://student.britannica.com/eb/art-56322>.

"Second Battle of Marne." World Wars. 23 Sep 2008 .